What is cybercrime?

Cyber crime refers to crimes carried out using computers or the internet.

This falls broadly into two categories: crimes committed that relate to computers themselves or traditional crimes conducted over the internet.

Hacking, for example, meaning gaining unauthorised entry to a system or network, is an example of the former.

In the UK, hackers end up charged under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990, which was passed by the British government to try to introduce some controls over the growing threat of hacking.

The law makes it a crime to access a computer without permission, to access a computer without permission in order to break another law and to change, break or copy files without permission.

Other cyber-specific crimes covered under the Computer Misuse Act include using malware to infect people’s computers. This is because malware constitutes changing the contents of a computer system without permission.

What is phishing?